This invention relates to the detection and correction or errors in the operation of sheet collators.
Collators, such as those used on copiers or printers, are provided for assemblying separate groups of copies produced from a set of original documents. Without a collator, the operator, when making multiple copies or prints, must separate and group together by hand the separate sets of copies made from the set of originals. Collators perform this function automatically while the copies are being made. Sheet collators are also used in industrial applications such as box making and the like where sheets of metal, cardboard, and so on, must be separated.
When used with a copying machine, the omission of a copy from a set presents a greater problem than the inclusion of duplicate copies of a page. Therefore, the invention is directed toward detecting and correcting automatically the failure of a collator to provide a copy of each document in each set of copies. This includes detecting a double feed at a bin because, since only a certain number of copies are made, the last bins would not receive a copy.